


Without Stillness

by ParadifeLoft



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Autistic Character(s), Backstory, Fluff, Gen, Kid Fic, Short One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-29
Updated: 2014-08-29
Packaged: 2018-02-15 05:51:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 608
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2218152
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ParadifeLoft/pseuds/ParadifeLoft
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <em>You want a teary confession about how hard my childhood was? ...I was a rich only child and got anything I wanted - as long as I behaved... and sat still... and didn't speak unless spoken to.</em>
</p>
<p>
Young Azula strikes up a friendship with another girl at her school, by showing interest in the things Mai would only have been reprimanded for at home.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Without Stillness

"What are you doing with your hands?"

Mai's head snapped up with a start, as she straightened herself automatically into a proper lady's sitting pose, stilling her hands folded in her lap and crossing her feet together.

The princess.

Her parents always said to be on her best behaviour in front of the royal family, almost every day before school at some little thing or another that she did - there were so many! - the way she walked and skipped or moved her arms or hummed or clicked her tongue, or when she started talking to one of them about the wrong thing.

"I didn't tell you to stop."

Mai knew the princess wasn't even as old as she was, but that didn't stop her from sounding just as assured and authoritative as her own parents did with their servants. But she didn't look or move the way they did, Mai could tell - her parents always had the _don't ask questions_ look, especially when they talked to other people. The princess looked like she _did_ want to ask questions.

Belatedly, Mai remembered that she was supposed to bow in front of the royal family, not look them in the face, and hurriedly did so.

"I'm sorry your highness. My mother tells me I should keep my hands still so I thought that's what you would tell me to do. Should I have waited to stop until you did?"

She could feel what she guessed was a considering appraisal of her explanation, though of course she hadn't looked up to see.

"No, no," said the princess after a moment of thought, waving her hand the way the older girls did when they were sending away gifts or dress choices they didn't want. "I wasn't going to make you stop. You looked like you were having fun. And what does it matter what your mother tells you to do, anyway? _She's_ not here. And mothers always want you to stop doing things that are fun; that doesn't mean you should listen to them."

Mai felt a small surge of guilt at the thought of disobeying her mother deliberately, simply because she wasn't here, but. It wasn't as if what the princess said wasn't _true_. And she outranked her mother anyway, didn't she?

So she took one hand off her lap, tentatively, and flapped it in front of her for a moment, swaying slightly from side to side. A small smile bubbled up in her and escaped onto her lips before she could push it back down.

"What are you so happy about?"

"I was thinking about yesterday's history lesson," she explained. Her mother had told her to stop babbling on when she tried to talk about it with her, but...

Causing enough surprise that Mai forgot the rule about bowing and turned to look up directly, the princess crossed the space between them purposefully and sat down beside Mai on the bench, feet just barely dangling.

"Well, it was pretty good," she said. "But my father has lots of stories and books in the royal library that are even better. They have lots of battles and really powerful firebenders in them."

The princess seemed to consider her for a moment, cocking her head to the side and watching her. And then she looked back out on the field, with intentioned nonchalance, holding the side of the bench and swinging her feet.

"I could _probably_ bring some for us to read tomorrow, if I remember," she said. "Some of the copies are important."

Without thinking about it much, Mai's own feet emerged from their stillness, and began swinging in time to match.


End file.
